Army G-4 Saluting Our Own

August 26, 2013 04:43 PM

WASHINGTON, August 26, 2013 – LTG Raymond V. Mason, the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff, G-4, will host the Pentagon's first event related to the commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War at 1 pm on Wednesday August 28, 2013, in the Pentagon Auditorium.

Guest speakers are: GEN John Campbell, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army; and LTG (Ret) Claude M. Kicklighter, Director of the Department of Defense's Vietnam War 50th Commemoration Program, who will preview the Nation's plans for honoring Vietnam Veterans.

During the event, LTG Mason will honor nine Vietnam Veterans who currently work in Army Logistics, the G-4. In total, they served 14 tours in Vietnam, and then a combined 225 years in uniform before they all retired. A 30-minute documentary about the nine, "Veterans of Valor," will be premiered. In the documentary, prepared by the G-4 and Army TV, the Veterans discuss their remembrances of the war, life after Vietnam, and lessons they learned that can help today's Iraq and Afghan Veterans.

LTG Mason serves as the lead for the Army on the Vietnam 50th Commemoration, and earlier this year the G-4 became the first military organization to become an official Commemorative Partner with the 50th Anniversary Program.

In 2007, the President and Congress requested that the Secretary of Defense begin planning to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. The goal is to get more than 10,000 corporations, government organizations, civic groups, and community organizations to join as partners and hold hometown events to honor veterans, personnel who were held as Prisoners of War or listed as Missing in Action, and families.